BEING PREPARED

“Everybody who owns a house is buying fire insurance and homeowner’s insurance, hoping and planning to never have a fire that burns down their house,” said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. “They think about it, they shop it and buy it anyway. Just take the same level of preparation for the own personal safety and security of your family.”

The Winter Olympics about halfway done in Sochi, Russia began with concerns about security, something Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard is an expert on after countless presidential visits, sporting events and Dream Cruises.

Bouchard serves as head of government affairs for the Major County Sheriffs’ Association and participates in an international counterterrorist group coordinated by the FBI. Along the way, he’s sent help to New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and visited hospitals in Israel where conflict casualties and chemical contaminants are all too real a concern

An event the size of the Olympics — “about as big as you can get” — requires extensive planning, interagency cooperation and consideration of everything from traffic management to radiological threats, he said.

During the 2008 presidential election, candidates paid an estimated 22 visits to Oakland County. In recent years, Oakland County has been host to both the Ryder Cup and US Senior Open, and the sheriff’s office oversees public safety for crowds of more than 1 million people every August during the Woodward Dream Cruise.

Advertisement

“I think Oakland County is as prepared as some of the most prepared places in the world,” Bouchard said. “We’ve got great partnerships and great relationships with all of the agencies. We could host anything. Period.”

An era of technology, terrorist threats

After bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon last year, “they had huge amounts of video, not just from closed circuit (cameras) in the street. They also had tons of people taking their own personal video at the time and just happening to capture things. (Police) sent people to the airport and every outbound plane, asking, ‘Did you take video? Can we get a copy of it?’” Bouchard said

“That was pretty amazing how quickly they identified the individuals that did it and then honed in on them. The challenges with that (pre-cell phone) would have been huge.”

The reverse is also true: “Technology’s evolved, and that includes bad guy technology,” he said. “You go from somebody having what’s an obvious explosive device to somebody having an underwear bomb.”

Bouchard said law enforcement has the unique challenges of both prevention and response.

“Individual citizens have their own duty, I would suggest. What would you do if something goes wrong? Do you have a plan?” he said. “When something goes bad, usually the cell phones are the first things to go, because everybody’s trying to make a call.”

Americans tend not to be as aware of their surroundings, Bouchard said. In Boston, “Those guys set down a backpack and walked away. If you set down a backpack in a lot of countries in the world, including Israel, you would immediately have people moving away from that thing like it was what it possibly could be and notifying authorities. They’re much more attuned to suspicious behavior. We’re still a little naive in that.”

To those who might say it can’t happen here, “statistically, you’re probably right. You’re more likely to get in a car accident than be involved in a terrorist attack. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware. I encourage everybody to have a situational awareness. Where are you walking, who’s around you, what kind of escape routes do you have?”

After attacks in Mumbai, India that involved multiple active shooters over a period of days, Bouchard organized a tactical training consortium for police in Oakland County on how to handle active shooters. In the last year, 1,000 officers have received training.

“You want that training to be on the same platform,” he said. “It’s like having a Windows and a Mac ... you want them to be able to talk.”

About the Author

I cover the City of Pontiac, as well as the northern Oakland County communities of Brandon Township, the Village of Ortonville, Springfield Township and Groveland Township. Reach the author at dustin.blitchok@oakpress.com
or follow Dustin on Twitter: @SincerelyDustin.